HEARTS owner Ann Budge has expressed her frustration with the SPFL for failing to act decisively after “philanthropists” approached her offering lower league clubs financial help to survive the coronavirus crisis.
However, SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster has responded to Budge’s comments by stating that he is happy to speak to the unnamed potential investors.
Elsewhere, speaking on Sportsound on BBC Radio Scotland this afternoon, the Tynecastle chairman also admitted that her league reconstruction proposals are doomed to fail.
Describing about the offer of financial help as “an amazing philanthropic gesture”, she said: "I'm being asked to put it in writing. It's a nonsense. It's not quick enough, it's not decisive enough."
"They know me because of Hearts. What they're saying is 'we would like to help Scottish football' and I can't even get that moving. They (the SPFL) asked me to put a paper in and they will discuss it next week.
"I'm offering them money! Not my money. I don't think it should be for me to say 'here's a pot of money, this is how I think it should be spent'. This is what is frustrating me more than anything. We are not addressing the right problems at all and people aren't armed with all of the information."
Doncaster said: “I have had a number of conversations with Ann this week, including one that also involved another club chairman.
"I am delighted to have heard Ann’s comment on the radio this afternoon that there are, in fact, no conditions attached to this money.
“I had been under the impression that Ann was going to continue talking to the potential investors, but if it is now appropriate for me to talk to them directly, I am very happy to do so.
“Clearly, any income for our game, especially at such a difficult time, is something we would all welcome. I will be speaking again to Ann over the weekend and hope to be in a position to update our divisional meetings this week.”
Asked about her plans for a new league set-up, Budge said: "The inherent unfairness of it (Hearts being relegated) is why I'm still talking about it. I put forward a paper which I want to be viewed as a discussion document.
"I'm not precious at all about 14-14-14. What I want to progress is the discussions. We need to start the dialogue. I feel like we have been treading water for weeks and nothing is happening."
She added: "If it hadn't been Hearts there, no, I might not have been fighting so hard, but I can assure you I would have been voting for change.
"If I go right back to March 15, I wrote to the SPFL and said we need to look at this so that clubs don't suffer. What I got back was a letter that basically said 'yes, if you would like to do the work and tell us what articles need changed, we'll look at it'.
"That is not what I expect from the governing body. I expect them to take more leadership.
"I should not be the one who's trying to come up with some solution. I and many others can see a tsunami coming towards us. Certain clubs cannot play behind closed doors. Other clubs don't want to for business reasons.
"Everybody knows we have to make a change. Let's make a change proactively rather than waiting for clubs getting into difficulty. It's a nonsense."
Elsewhere, Budge admitted that Hearts manager Daniel Stendel "technically does not have a contract" but refused to be drawn on whether the German will leave the club.
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